Work has begun on a new Joomla site for ArtEgg.com

Any suggestions, as always, are appreciated. You can visit the site here.

Restarting Explorer

If your computer starts acting strange, one thing that is worth trying is to restart explorer. This can be done through the task manager (Ctr-alt-del) by ending the explorer process. When you do this you will see that your desktop icons and your taskbar will disappear, along with any open explorer windows (not to be confused with Internet Explorer, or your web browser which will remain unnafected). Then you will need to go to 'File-New Task' and enter 'explorer' to start it again.

Another easier way to accomplish this is to creat a .bat file to restart explorer. Open Notepad and past the following into it:

@echo off
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start explorer.exe
exit

Now save this file as something you will remember with a '.bat' extension, I called mine restart-ie.bat.

You can now save this file, or a shortcut to it several places like on your desktop, in your start menu, you can also put one in your C:\Windows\System32 folder making it possible to start it with a run command (go to start-run and type in the filename without the .bat)

Note: This works in XP-Pro, and XP-home. I haven't tried it in Vista. If you are using XP-Home, you will need the taskkill.exe file, which you can find here. You will need to unzip this file and save it to your C:\Windows\System32 folder.

Time sync trick

If a computer's time resets, create shortcut then put it in startup, or run it as a scheduled task with the following command:

w32tm /resync

Tip 3 - Use VLC

If you have ever put in a DVD and found it stopping and starting it was probably because your player was trying to use resources (processor and RAM) that were not available. I try to use light weight programs so I don't run into this problem.

My favorite is VLC Media Player . Download and install it and check all the boxes during the setup to let it take care of playing as many different media types as it can handle.

If you like a better looking interface, you can download skins for it, take a look at some of the screenshots to see how nice it can look.

In future tips I'll let you know about other "lite" versions of software that you can use.

Peace,
geoffrey/pax

Tip 2 - Use Launchy

Great little program, takes a small amount of getting used to, but after a couple days you'll never want to be without it.

This little utility is a smart tool for opening your applications and doing tasks that you regularly have to go looking for the launch icons. There are many things it does that I haven't even explored yet, and they seem to be developing more while web 2.0 folks seem to be creating scripts that work with Luanchy.

Read more on the site, try it out and let me know if you agree that it is a HUGE time saver.

Peace,
geoffrey/pax

RUBARBike.org Updates Made

Updates have been made to rubarbike.org as they have begun a new season after summer travels. Be sure to check out the site and the BRAG photo album!

Leave comments if you see area for improvement, if there are no comment I'll assume it looks perfect!

Tip 1 - Smoothing Out the Fonts

Today we launch the new blog concept for AWA. These posts will start including tips that may improve your computer and web experience.

For today's I will tell you about a little trick to change the font style to make things a bit more eye friendly. This is not for everyone, but I thing it helps a lot.

Some people have mentioned that web pages are easier to read in Inernet Explorer than with other browsers. Well, turns out this is a windows XP feature available for all programs.

If you right click on your desktop and bring up Display Properties box (or open it from control panel or run - 'desk.cpl'). Go to the Appearance tab, click on Effects and change the "Use the following method to smooth edges.." to Clear Type.

Try it, see what you think, and if you prefer to have the crisp looking text change it back to Standard.

Leave a comment and let me know which way you prefer.

Peace,
geoffrey/pax

While I am in New Orleans, I plan to continue developing and promoting the websites I am working on. I will not however be actively seeking new clients so please be patient. If you are interested in what is going on in New Orleans, you can visit my other blog "Living in New Orleans."


Peace,
geoffrey/pax

Internet Explorer 7 has been released. This is good and bad news for the web design world. The good news is that supposedly many of the bugs that made Explored not render pages right, forcing web designer to find workarounds have been fixed. The bad news is that it will be some time before the new browser is running on all machines so in the meantime all web designs will have to be previewed in both to make sure they render correctly.

It was a great Monastic Day!

I heard back from Common Ground Collective, but still not sure of volunteer status. I may just be headed that way, but I was asked to stay on here for a few more days.

Made fudge with Father Anthony today, while he was interviewed for a local NPR story. I'll post it when it airs.

We officially launched the link to the monastery podcast, be sure to visit Trappist.net and click on the podcast link on the left side. We are up to 117 subscribers to the podcast. This page is for those who don't want to, or know how to subscribe, but want to listen. It was one heck of a struggle to get it to work in both browsers. Between using extensive CSS and mixing in flash code and xml, one and then the other didn't work, until a simple solution came along and it all fell into place. It really is inspiring how often that seems to happen when I work here at the monastery.
Finally, I just came from compline. I you haven't heard compline at the monastery, you can download this link, or listen with the button below.